GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- After seeing its 2020 fall schedule canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Tusculum University men's soccer team will take to the field for an abbreviated seven-game schedule this spring.
Spring 2021 Tusculum Men's Soccer Schedule
The Pioneers will play conference matches on six consecutive Thursdays, starting Feb. 25 against Mars Hill and ending April 1 against Lincoln Memorial. The South Atlantic Conference has broken up the 12-team conference into three groups of four teams each, with each team playing a round-robin series against its other three opponents.
"I'm so excited for our players that they will get the opportunity to compete at the start of the new year," said head coach Allen Vital, who will begin his 10th season at his alma mater with 243 career wins as a college coach. "We are all looking forward with hope and great anticipation that this new format adopted by the SAC for men's soccer will bring us much-needed excitement in light of all that happened in 2020."
The Pioneers' schedule pod includes Mars Hill, Lincoln Memorial and Carson-Newman. Tusculum went 1-1-1 against those three opponents during 2019, a year in which the Pioneers finished 6-7-3 overall and 5-3 2 in SAC play to end up in fourth place in the final standings.
Tusculum will open its 2021 spring schedule with a non-conference game against King on Thursday, Feb. 11 at Pioneer Field. The Tornado went 4-10-1 overall in 2019 and 3-6-0 in Conference Carolinas during the fall of 2019, which included a 3-2 overtime win over the Pioneers. Tusculum leads the all-time series with King by an 18-9-3 margin.
The Pioneers open conference play on Thursday, Feb. 25 at Pioneer Field against Mars Hill. The Lions finished 4-12-1 overall in 2019 and were 0-10 in conference play, scoring just two goals in their 10 losses. The Pioneers beat the Lions 2-0 in their 2019 meeting, giving Tusculum a 16-9-4 edge in the all-time series.
The Pioneers will visit Lincoln Memorial on Thursday, March 4 for their first of two meetings with the Railsplitters. LMU compiled a 6-8-3 record in 2019 and was tied for fifth in the conference with a 5-4-1 mark. The Railsplitters, who were eliminated in the quarterfinal round of the SAC Championship tournament by Wingate, defeated the Pioneers 2-1 in their lone meeting of 2019 at Pioneer Field. LMU leads the all-time series 14-11-6.
On Thursday, March 11 the Pioneers will finish the first half of their pod schedule with a home match against Carson-Newman. The Eagles took second place in the SAC standings in 2019 with a 6-1-3 record, but were upset 5-1 by Coker in the conference quarterfinals to end the year at 10-4-3. The Pioneers and Eagles played to a 1-1 draw in the regular-season finale of 2019, and Tusculum enters 2021 with a 17-13-6 lead in the all-time series.
The second half of the conference schedule begins on Thursday, March 18 when the Pioneers travel to Mars Hill, followed by a visit to Carson-Newman on Thursday, March 25. Tusculum closes out the conference slate on Thursday, April 1 at home against Lincoln Memorial.
The conference will combine the results from all three pod groups into a full 12-team standings, with the top finishers qualifying for the SAC Championship tournament at Matthews, North Carolina. Semifinal matches will be played Friday, April 9 and the final will be Sunday, April 11.
